Post 9/11 NSA Wiretaps Have Proved Worthless

[MsKandice01]

Surprise, surprise.

Post-September 11 avalanche of data led FBI to dead ends

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Much of the domestic spying conducted by the National Security Agency after the September 11, 2001 attacks was reportedly unproductive and led the FBI to dead ends or innocent Americans.

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FBI officials checking up on post-September 11 NSA information, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, said the checks were "pointless intrusions on Americans' privacy," said the daily paraphrasing its sources.

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The stream of data led to few potential terrorists inside the United States not already known to authorities and diverted attention from counter-terrorism work FBI officials viewed as more productive.

"We'd chase a number, find it's a schoolteacher with no indication they've ever been involved in international terrorism - case closed," said one former FBI official. "After you get a thousand numbers and not one is turning up anything, you get some frustration," he added.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060117/pl_afp/uspoliticsintelligence

The article also states that the FBI questioned the legality of the wiretaps.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. The ones before 9/11 didn't help much either.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. How much did it cost... and if they proved worthless, just how

smart are the people whom we have pissed off to the point of no return????

Then again, just how fricking stupid are the morans who ignored all the pre-911 warnings from MULTIPLE sources, many of them from foreign govts.

[shance]

3. Dead end for finding terrrorists, but was that their intent to begin with?

I would imagine it was quite treasure chest about us as activists and those of us opposing the Bush Administration and their illegal war and globally destructive policies.

[aquart]

4. Both illegal AND stupid.

Can't they do anything right? As opposed to right wing?